Will Israel attack Iran?

Uneasy allies: Netanyahu and Obama

Last Monday’s meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and American President Barack Obama at the White House was not as tense as expected; it even appeared that the two leaders were able to arrive at some sort of a middle ground. But just the same, the meeting didn’t produce any assurance that Israel wouldn’t attack Iran. On the contrary, the President uttered words that the Prime Minister had clearly wanted to hear: That Israel has the right to do as it sees fit in order to defend its sovereignty.

Israeli leaders insist that if they don’t attack Iran soon, their opportunity to prevent the Islamic Republic, the President of which has long been calling for the destruction of Israel, from acquiring nuclear weapons would permanently disappear. Israel doesn’t want Iran to be able to enrich uranium. This for them is the red line– the point that calls for exercising the last resort, which is the use of force.

Pakistan gets an A.

Someone has told me before that during the Cold War, Pakistan leaked SEATO intelligence information to the Russians in exchange for nuclear know-how.

Now, there’s a report by the London School of Economics articulating the very obvious: That Pakistan is in fact supporting the Taliban. Read about it here.

Be an ally of a notorious insurgent group. Be an ally of the enemy of that insurgent group. Prop up that insurgent group. Offer help to the enemy of that insurgent group. Receive gazillions of dollars in aid. What a fantastic War On Terror Playbook!

Let’s give Pakistan an A in Geopolitics.

Tigers slain.

In Sri Lanka, the president pursues all out war against the Tamil Tigers, got crticized by peace-nicks, lost an IMF loan, but eventually suceeded in ending South Asia’s longest running insurgency. Now, Colombo is talking of ways to reconcile with the Tamils and address their grievances to ensure lasting peace, without being distracted by armed rebels.

Why can’t the Philippines do the same?

Mindanao: Overlapping interests.

Even when I was still a freshman, my professors were already questioning Malaysia’s involvement as a mediator in the “peace process” between the government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Obviously, Kuala Lumpur is not neutral in this conflict. The Malaysians are, and have always been, siding with the secessionists. Proof of this is the fact that their given reason for their threat earlier this year to withdraw from the International Monitoring Team (IMT) echoes MILF’s line back then: that the government was stalling peace by stubbornly insisting on grounding any agreement on the frameworks of the Philippine Constitution.

What’s behind US support for Bangsamoro entity?

In an op-ed article on the Wall Street Journal about the treasonousagreement between the Arroyo regime and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Professor Brett Decker of John Hopkins University provides us with an idea of what position the United States should take on the issue:

He said: “…perhaps most importantly for the outside world, greater Islamic independence and less Philippine control over the Islamic regions would invite even more terrorist activity in an area that already has strong ties to al Qaeda. With the deployment of U.S. Special Forces to the southern Philippines now in its seventh year, joint U.S.-Philippine operations have pacified the most lawless Muslim areas. Expanding the Islamist sphere of influence now threatens to undo this success.”

Balkanizing the Philippines.

Earlier today, Ambassador Villa postponed his lecture and provided our class instead with copies of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on the establishment of a Bangsamoro juridical entity (BJE). The class spent an hour and a half reading and analyzing the agreement.

I’m not a law student. I can’t claim to be good at dissecting legal documents. But I know enough to say that the approval of this MOA- how I pray it won’t happen- will be the most disastrous event that will ever happen to this country.